Diagnosing Errors

What is Wrongful Death?

Wrongful death is a death that occurs due to someone else’s negligence or reckless indifference. Negligent conducts can include drinking while driving, falling asleep at the wheel, and medical malpractice to name a few.

Can I handle the claim myself?

It is not recommended. Wrongful death claims can be complicated. Certain requirements have to be met. A Kansas City wrongful death attorney knows the laws and can navigate the legal process for you and deal with the insurance company while you focus on taking care of your family.

Typically, the only cases we recommend that a person handle themselves are property damage only claims or claims with minimal property damage and minor injuries. If an insurance company can take advantage of you and your loved ones, they will. Personal injury attorneys know the arguments that insurance adjusters will make and can protect you against those.

Another reason you should have a Missouri wrongful death lawyer fighting for you is that there are several types of damages that can potentially be recovered following the death of a loved one caused by someone else’s negligence, and an experienced Kansas City personal injury attorney can help you evaluate what losses you and your family have suffered that may be compensable.

Losses may include but are not limited to:

• Survival Damages – conscious pain and suffering and mental anguish, lost wages, medical expenses
• Funeral Expenses
• Loss of Support
• Loss of Companionship
• Loss of Consortium
• Punitive Damages

If you have lost a loved one due to someone else’s negligence, don’t hesitate to contact the experienced Missouri wrongful death attorneys at Castle Law Office for your FREE consultation.

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As you can see from the break lights, the heavy traffic was unexpectedly slowing. By analyzing the actions of all veihicles we aggressivly persued each insurance company to obtain a substantial total recovery for our client from each available insurance policy.

Motorcycle Accident Attorney CT

Buyer beware: Consumer Reports has released its annual list of worst cars, and one of the country’s most popular pick-up trucks is at the top of the list due to poor car test ratings. The Consumer Reports website is a common resource for new car and truck buyers, with a great deal of information on safety such as car accident statistics, crash avoidance systems and “rollover 101.” In place with long stretches of highway on which drivers speed fairly often, such as Texas, catastrophic truck accidents can cause roll-over wrecks and head-on collisions.

According to an article in the New York Daily News, the list is based on testing scores from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Consumer Reports, the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration and consumer analyst JD Power. Due to low ratings on car roll-over accidents, side impact collisions and seatbelt safety concerns, there are several defective cars on the market.

Fort Worth, Texas personal injury attorney David Glenn encourages new car and truck buyers to study as many safety and crash ratings as possible before making their purchase. By being informed, they will not end up with a vehicle that has safety problems such as a dangerous risk of roll-over, defective airbags, faulty brakes or unreliable seatbelts.

Due to overall poor crash test results, the Dodge Ram 1500 pick-up truck was been named as 2012’s most dangerous car in the United States, despite being a popular, high-selling vehicle. With so many trucks in Texas, catastrophic accident injuries here could be lowered if truck buyers consult Consumer Reports ratings first. Traumatic brain injury, brain and head injury, spinal cord injury are some of the most devastating Texas accident injuries, and while many are due to drunk driving, sometimes it is just a case of a dangerous car on the road.

Other cars that on the list of most dangerous cars on the road were the Chevrolet Colorado Super Cab, the Mazda CX-7, the Mazda CX-9, the Nissan Pathfinder, the Jeep Wrangler and the Suzuki SX4. No European automakers are among the worst-scoring seven models, which contained three US-made cars and four Japanese-made models.

Glenn Law Firm
210 W. Wall Street
Grapevine, Texas 76051

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According to a June 24, 2012 article in the Philadelphia Enquirer, Senator Barbara Boxer asked car rental companies to make a public pledge “not to rent or sell any vehicles under safety recall until the defect has been remedied.” So far, only Hertz has agreed to the pledge, while their competitors rejected the challenge. For anyone planning to rent a car from one of those non-compliant companies, this means that the consequences of unrepaired mechanical defects, such as faulty seatbelt car wreck injuries or defective brakes whiplash, could not only mar their holiday fun-they could risk lives.

The Knoxville, Tennessee personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of G. Turner Howard III believe car safety recalls should be heeded by both consumers and car rental companies, and hope that Hertz’s response may set a precedent for other auto rental companies to follow suit.

In a letter addressed to Sen. Boxer, Hertz said the pledge reflected a “long-standing Hertz policy.”

New legislation sponsored by Sens. Boxer and Charles Schumer would make it a legal issue, forcing car rental companies to stop renting recalled cars until needed repairs or modifications have been made. Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety says

Hertz has been lobbying with her, Boxer and Schumer to write the policy into law.

A nationally publicized defective car accident lawsuit sparked Boxer’s challenge to car rental companies and the subsequent proposed legislation she co-authored. The case involved a malfunctioning rental car rented by two young college-age sisters in 2004. Jacquie and Raechel Houck were fatally injured in a rental car crash when they lost control of their Enterprise Rent-a-Car PT Cruiser due to leaking steering fluid. During the accident, a fire erupted under the hood and both women lost their lives. After protracted litigation, Enterprise admitted liability two years ago, and accepted a jury verdict that awarded $15 million to their family.

Shahan says that Enterprise and Avis Budget Group are two of several rental car companies seeking to water down the legislation. One of their suggested changes would make it possible for them to attend to repairs “as soon as practicable” rather than before renting the vehicles out to customers. Another change to the legislation would allow them to still rent out unrepaired cars as long as they let car-rental counter customers know about what repairs needed to be made.

Unfortunately, the hazardous vehicle rental risks go beyond the car rental counter, since many car rental companies also sell their previously rented cars on the used-car market. That means many cars will end up on roads and highways that have, in fact, been recalled, which translates to a greater risk of car accident injuries and fatalities across the country. It is, therefore, a case of both renter and buyer beware.

At the offices of Tennessee personal injury lawyerG. Turner Howard III , we do all we can to ensure that our clients who have suffered car accident injuries are informed of their rights and any car recalls that may pertain to their Tennessee car crash. If you or someone you love has been involved in defective rented car accident, call us today for a free consultation at 1-800-HURTLINE or complete our online contact form. We are compassionate, experienced aggressive legal representatives who can seek justice for your injuries.

The Law Offices of G. Turner Howard III
5915 Casey Drive
Knoxville, TN 37950

After eight weeks, 46 witnesses, two dozing jurors and an estimated $2-3 million spent in taxpayer money, the Roger Clemens trial is finally over.

The verdict: Not guilty on three counts of making false statements, not guilty on two counts of perjury and not guilty on one count of obstruction. The charges stemmed from testimony that Clemens made in Feb. 2008, telling a Congressional committee that he had never taken steroids or HGH.

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What an excellent use of tax payer money (sarcasm for those who don’t get it).

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For many car seats, parents have had two options: Using the seat belt in the car to attach the seat, or using the LATCH system – Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children – which most parents consider easier to use for installing the seat.

However, with a new federal rule that will take affect in early 2014, child safety-seat manufacturers will be required to tell parents not to use the LATCH system if their child and the car seat have a combined weight of 65 pounds or more.

Many car seats weigh as much as 15 to 33 pounds, so children as light as 32 pounds or as young as 3 may be affected by this new rule. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children remain in car seats with harnesses until they are 8.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers petitioned for the new rule because the strength of the lower tethers was not enough to assure the safety of heavier children. Other safety advocates say that seat belts need to be strengthened to reduce the risk of njuries to children.

Other problems have been noted with the LATCH system.

Last summer, a study by Safe Kids Worldwide found that community checkpoint technicians were only using lower anchors to attach child safety seats about 30 percent of the time, and parents were only using the top tethers about 30 percent of the time.

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Laws regulating Oklahoma auto accidents might seem strict. But a national safety study recently gave Oklahoma a low grade for injury prevention. On a scale of 10, Oklahoma received a score of five.

Oklahoma also ranked 6th highest in the nation in a state-by-state analysis of injury fatality rates for 2007 through 2009, according to the same national study. A total of 83 people per 100,000 died due to a fatal injury during that time period. New Mexico had the highest injury fatality rate nationwide, with 97.8 deaths per 100,000 people.

The report entitled “The Facts Hurt” examined a wide range of factors, including each state’s laws concerning seat belts, bicycle helmets and car booster seats. Each state’s safety grade was based on statewide auto accident injury and fatality statistics. See: personal injury attorney oklahoma Injury prevention grades also took into account factors such as motorcycle helmet laws, federal funding for injury prevention efforts and other strategies to designed to save lives and reduce serious injuries.

“There are proven, evidence-based strategies that can spare millions of Americans from injuries each year,” said Jeff Levi, Executive Director of The Trust for America’s Health, which co-authored the study with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This report focuses on specific, scientifically supported steps we can take to make it easier for Americans to keep themselves and their families safer.”

Oklahoma drivers face all sorts of hazards every day on the road. Just recently, a 34-year-old man from Oklahoma died on Interstate 44 in Grady County when the tread separated on his tire and his vehicle struck a guardrail, according to NewsOn6.com. The accident may be grounds for a defective tire lawsuit.

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The May 28 tragic crash of a helicopter used for transporting offshore workers to drilling rigs and oil production platforms is a case in point that not all maritime offshore worker seamen injuries happen on offshore vessels or structures.

Because production platform rig explosions usually get the most media attention, the general public might not know that there are many other causes of offshore worker injuries, and getting from the shore to offshore job site is one of them. And since offshore workers do a lot of traveling between their offshore work location and land, there are many dangers of maritime worker transport injuries. Seamen employees often have to be transported by a crane carrying a personnel transfer basket or via helicopter onto various worksites, and many things can go wrong out at sea, including airborne equipment failure.

Maritime injury attorney William Gee III, who provides Louisiana and the Gulf Coast with aggressive legal representation in offshore and maritime law cases, has seen countless offshore worker injuries that occurred during travel across the Gulf to offshore structures.

Personnel basket transfers are especially hazardous, as they involve crane operation and present a high risk of offshore worker injury due to potential mechanical problems, operator inexperience, bad weather or poor visibility. An offshore worker may use a personnel basket to be transferred to and from a crew boat onto a submersible, semi-submersible, jack-up, inland barge, drill ship, barge, dredge or other maritime work structure in the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore employers must therefore do all they can to protect offshore and maritime workers not only from oil drilling rig disasters and production platform accidents but from offshore accident injuries that maritime workers sustain on the way to their job or when going ashore.

The recent offshore helicopter crash caused one death at sea, which was that of the pilot. The Associated Press article, which appeared in the Miami Herald, said a Coast Guard news release reported that divers from the Ocean Inspector vessel had discovered the pilot inside the helicopter cockpit. Though the pilot’s fatal Gulf accident was a tragic loss, thankfully there were no other helicopter passengers or offshore workers on board at the time of the wreck. Only a few years ago in 2009, however, nine people were killed on their way to an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The event was a warning to all offshore and maritime workers that they take great risks the moment they board a boat or helicopter on their way to work.

Offshore workers need to know that they have rights to legal recourse and compensation, even if they are injured on the way to or from their offshore job. If a maritime worker is injured due to negligence of a third party who is not the offshore worker’s employer, federal maritime law usually provides the rules of law and remedies. In offshore transport accidents, such as a case of a defective transfer basket, mechanical crane failure, faulty helicopter, negligent crane operator or reckless helicopter pilot, maritime tort could apply.

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Driving in New England can be challenging any time of year. Sudden blizzards or violent rainstorms. Aggressive drivers on Interstate 84. Confusing street patterns created by Colonial settlers based on chaotic cow paths.

Add to the list the dramatic differences in state traffic laws throughout New England. What’s legal in Massachusetts can often be against the law in Rhode Island or Vermont. Here are some of the highlights from a recent article published by The Boston Globe.

Take Connecticut’s confusing traffic laws. Connecticut is a hands-free state in terms of cell phones. This means you need a headset if you want to make calls on the road. Talking on a cell phone without a headset while driving can result in a $125 fine. The same fine applies to texting while driving in Connecticut.

Connecticut has a “primary” seat belt law, which means a police officer can pull you over and fine you whenever an officer sees someone unbelted in either front seat. As for passengers riding in the back seat, Connecticut’s seat belt laws only require passengers under 16 years old to buckle up.

Connecticut’s child safety restraint laws are also unique. Children under 7 years old or less than 60 pounds must sit in either a child booster or car seat that’s belted into place. All others must be buckled up. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, children must be strapped into a car safety seat until they are either 8 years old or 4 feet, 9 inches tall.

At the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone & Morelli, a Hartford Connecticut personal injury attorneys at our law firm can work with you if you’re dealing with a car accident. We know what’s legal or against the law in Connecticut.

That might sound simple. But keeping up with Connecticut’s constantly changing laws can be complicated. Allow us to help you cut through the red tape and decide what’s the best thing for you to do, including whether to file an auto accident lawsuit in Ct.

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Laws regulating auto accidents in cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore might seem strict. But how tough are they? And how do they compare with other states nationwide?

A recent nationwide study gives a grade to each state for injury prevention. The top states nationwide for injury prevention are California and New York, which each received a score of 9 out of 10. Maryland was close behind with a score of eight. Washington, D.C., and Illinois each received a grade of seven. Alabama and Georgia earned a score of six.

The scores were based on 10 different injury prevention indicators. These include whether the state has a primary seat belt law, mandatory ignition interlocks for a convicted drunk driver, universal helmet laws for motorcycle riders, booster seat laws and regulations regarding bicycle helmet usage.

“There are proven, evidence-based strategies that can spare millions of Americans from injuries each year,” said Jeff Levi, Executive Director of The Trust for America’s Health, which co-authored the study with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. “This report focuses on specific, scientifically supported steps we can take to make it easier for Americans to keep themselves and their families safer.”

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